Author's note:

Thank you so much for the reviews! I have corrected Marinette's name and I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

—-

Marinette was awakened from her nap by a loud boom. She sat up quickly and shuffled weakly to the window, peering outside. Through the frosty window she could see a brilliant show of lights as an akuma victim was shooting bright beams of energy at Chat Noir.

"Oh no!" she cried as Tikki rushed over. "Tikki look - an akuma! And Chat Noir is all alone!"

"I have an idea," said Tikki quickly, heart pounding in her chest. "Marinette, give me the earrings."

Marinette stared in surprise at Tikki. Her hand slowly touched one of them and she said, "Tikki, what are you going to do?"

"Ladybug has to fight," she said gently. "But it can't be you. Marinette, the risk rises when you are ill. You have to understand that. The attacks and the use of the Lucky Charm could harm you."

"But Tikki," said Marinette, eyes wide. "Who should we choose?"

"I have kept your secret identity safe all this time," said Tikki. "I wouldn't tell even you, to ensure that this Ladybug would be safe."

"How will she get the earrings then?!" demanded Marinette. "I can't take them to her or I'll know who she is, and Master Fu isn't here - "

"I will do it," said Tikki in a proud, authoritative voice. "You needn't worry, Marinette. I'll take care of it!"

"But Tikki, I…" Marinette suddenly trailed off, and with a little sigh her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell into a little heap on the floor.

"Marinette!" gasped Tikki in alarm, zooming down to see the sick girl's face. Marinette's eyes were closed, and her breathing was labored. Tikki laid a small hand on her holder's cheek and gasped. The fever rose! She thought in alarm.

"Mari?" came a voice from downstairs.

I have to move fast before her parents come upstairs!

Tikki had just barely removed the first earring from Marinette's ear when she heard footsteps on the stairs. With a soft cry of alarm she pulled the other one out and just managed to pick up the back and zoom behind the safe picture frame when the door opened.

"Marinette!" cried Sabine as she rushed to her daughter's side. "Tom, TOM!" Sabine cradled her daughter's head in her hands, worry and fear etched into her face.

Tom came up behind her and gasped. "I'm calling 911!" he cried, preparing to run back downstairs.

I'm sorry I have to leave you like this, Mari, thought Tikki. But even kwamis have to make hard decisions!

"Take her downstairs," ordered Sabine. "I'll make the call!"

Tom quickly lifted the unconscious girl into his arms, and wrapped a few blankets around her. "Sabine, her fever!" he exclaimed. "It's climbed!"

"Hello? Yes our daughter has been sick and collapsed just now. She's seventeen, and she had a fever. Please hurry! The Dupain-Cheng Bakery!" Sabine turned to Tom. "Go ahead," she said. "I'll pack Marinette's things. I'll be down in a minute."

Tom went downstairs carrying his precious cargo. Marinette didn't stir, and her flushed cheeks and pale face only made him more worried.

Tikki saw her chance. As Sabine seized some clothes and stuffed them into the pink duffle bag she have fished out of Marinette's things, Tikki held the earrings tighter and raced out from behind the picture frame.

—

Chat Noir moaned from where he lay on the pavement, baton far out of reach, and cataclysm already used up, but to no avail. Beaten and bruised, he slowly looked up at the colorful boy who was coming closer and closer to him, grinning maliciously and reaching out a hand for his miraculous.

"Please, M'lady," whispered Chat weakly, staring up at his doom. "Save me."

"Don't touch him!" came a cry, and the familiar sound of a yoyo came to Chat's relieved ears. The akuma victim was yanked back, and a flash of red caught Chat's eye as Ladybug swooped in from the left, and with one kick she had the akuma victim on his back. She shoved her foot into his chest, binding him with the yoyo, and she held him down with amazing strength that was unusual even for her.

"My Lady!" cried Chat, slowly getting to his feet. She can't be Marinette, he thought. She's not sick - she's better than ever!

He laughed and brushed himself off. "I have never been so glad to see -"

Ladybug turned.

"-you?!" finished Chat, taking a step back in surprise.

She was not wearing her normal suit, but rather a tunic of silk that billowed out behind her in the cold wind. Her mask was the same, but her hair was pulled back into a single bun, and her long robes were red silk with black satin, a polka-dotted sash cinching the tunic up against her torso. Her face was rounder, and her eyes were gray. She was also shorter than the Ladybug he knew and adored.

"You aren't Ladybug!" he shrieked, weakly taking a battle stance.

"Calm down, Chat Noir," she said, voice deeper and more motherly than the normal Ladybug's. "Tell me where the akuma is, and then I can explain the entire story."

"In the electric lights around his waist," said Chat Noir, not relaxing. His wary green eyes watched her, and in his heart he feared the worst.

Ladybug reached down and yanked on the lights with her gloved hands, tearing them apart. The akuma came out and like a pro she whipped out her yoyo and de-evilized it.

"Goodbye, little butterfly," she said softly. The teenage boy pinned beneath her foot transformed into himself, and since there had been no need for a lucky charm an ambulance came to aid the people who had been injured by the akuma. The sirens and AC teams (Akuma Cleanup) came in, and in the hubbub Chat Noir didn't let the imposter Ladybug out of his sight. She felt his gaze, and as she hooked her yoyo to her sash she turned to him.

"Chat Noir," said she said, gray eyes searching his face. "I know you have questions, and my kwami told me to explain some things to you. Let's go somewhere private."

Chat eyed her warily. "Only if it's in the open," he said. "Just because Ladybug trusts you doesn't mean that I do. Where is she?"

"I'll explain as much as I can," said Ladybug quietly, eyes kind. "Let's go to the Eiffel Tower."

—

Ladybug was quiet the whole way to the Eiffel Tower, her majestic robes only adding more mystery to her persona. Chat Noir followed her, watching how she moved. She surely wasn't a new Ladybug - she was more graceful than his Lady had been on her first day. She also seemed very familiar with the yoyo, and was even faster than his Ladybug.

They reached the tower. The sky had dimmed in the winter evening, and it had begun to snow. They sat on a ledge, tucked under the lights of the lookout point of the tower.

"Who are you?" he demanded finally.

She laughed. "You don't even know Ladybug's real name," she said. "Why would I give you mine?"

"Fine!" he said, angry. "Look, I'm scared okay? You aren't my Ladybug! Where is she?! Why did you replace her?!"

Ladybug smiled understandingly. "Well, let me calm your fears. She'll be back soon. She's not well, and needed a break. I will be helping you in her place."

"What's wrong?" he asked, green eyes filled with concern. "Is she sick?!"

"I…I…" Ladybug stammered, then sighed. "Chat, I see that you care about her. Because of that I will tell you. But know that if you get akumatized, you could pose as a threat to her."

"I understand," said Chat. "But something I'm tired of not knowing is who my friends are. Even you. IF I could know who you are…I could come to you when I don't feel safe, and when I am in need."

He looked down, eyes sad. "I wouldn't be so alone."

Ladybug laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Are you alone, Chat?"

"Most of the time," he said. Why am I saying all of this? She seems so much like… he stopped at suddenly looked at her. Her gentle eyes, filled with love, but a love he hadn't seen or felt for almost three years…

And he burst into tears.

Her arms were wrapped around him, and he hid his face in her shoulder. His sobs were the only sound around them, and the snow fell gently about their still figures perched on the cold Eiffel Tower.

"What's wrong, Chat?" murmured Ladybug, running a gloved hand through his fluffed blonde hair.

He pulled out of the hug, still sobbing and wiping his eyes and nose. And like the little child he was inside he sobbed out, "I miss…my…mom!"

Oh how free that felt. He hadn't said that in three years. No one had wanted him to be sad, and so he hadn't been - in their presence. But deep down in his soul, hidden from the expectations of cameras and friends, his heart had screamed in silent pain that no one had heard or wanted to hear.

But just now - this motherly soul that seemed to love him and care about him reminded him so much of the mother he had lost, that all of the feelings refused to remain ignored. Now they gushed out of him in the form of tears, and made him suddenly feel a peace he hadn't felt in a long time. All of his inner sadness had been dispelled.

"Oh Chat," said Ladybug. "Did you lose her?" Her eyes filled with sympathetic tears as well.

"Y…yes," sobbed Chat. "And now," he added, voice high pitched from his tears, "Ladybug is gone! Just like that. I saw her yesterday - she came on patrol, and we fought another akuma together. And just like Mom - she's gone!"

Ladybug gently rubbed his head, stroking his hair comfortingly. "I understand," she said softly. "Listen, Chat. It sounds like we both are in a similar position."

He looked up, surprised. "Really?"

"Today I nearly lost my own child," she said, eyes filling with fresh tears. They slowly spilled over, and her lip trembled. "It was sudden, and without warning, and scared me more than anything I've ever faced. However, in order to save Paris, I accepted the chance to come back for a night."

"Come back?" asked Chat, feeling weak from crying so hard. He looked at her, eyes hungry for answers and attention.

She read it so clearly in his eyes. She scooted closer to him, then said comfortingly, "Let me tell you a story, Chat. The story of a Ladybug and Chat Noir that lived about fifteen years ago."

This new Ladybug pulled him into a long hug, and whispered to him her story. Her soft voice made him feel like a little kid again, laying in his mother's arms and listening to stories of past heroes long gone. Her gentle voice calmed the stormy sea of emotions that raged mercilessly inside, and for once he felt a calm in his soul that he'd desperately missed.

"I was Ladybug in Japan," she whispered in his ear, breath warm. "We faced monsters and crime, but we had learned of Hawkmoth and his horrible agenda to capture our miraculouses. Chat Noir and I did our best, and we would have found him out but he found us first, used our families against us. I had a baby daughter at the time, and my husband is my very best friend. Chat Noir had no family, and begged me to let him go after Hawkmoth alone. I told him that we did things together, or not at all."

She hugged the small Chat Noir in her arms a little tighter, remembering the last young man who wore this miraculous. "He did not listen."

"What happened to him?" asked Chat softly, not moving from his lovely cozy spot in her arms.

"I don't know," whispered Ladybug. "But he never came back. I gave my miraculous back to my friend who guarded them for us, and then moved my family. Here we have been safe. But when I saw you and the new Ladybug come into the light, I knew I needed to stay. There might be a way I could help. And today when Tikki came to me, I knew that I could help in ways that no one else could. That is why I came to help you. You haven't lost Ladybug - she'll be back once she has recovered, and she'll be herself again."

"Will I…will I ever see you again?"

There was a sad note in Chat's voice that caught her by surprise. "Chat…of course you will."

She let go of him and got to her feet. "I know that you need some good old fashioned mothering," she added with a smile, and tweaked his nose. "And so let me show you my face so that you know where to find me."

—

The hospital room was dimly lit at this late hour of the night. It was white and not very welcoming, and the clean smell made Alya think of the times that she'd come on other visits. They'd usually been her grandparents, and people who were old and usually sick. And so as Alya sat next to Marinette, holding her school bag tightly in her lap, she couldn't help but feel like the whole thing was wrong. Her friend was sleeping, medicine working it's way through her system and a cold cloth on her forehead to keep the fever at a controllable level. Marinette's eyes were closed in deep slumber, pale face tired and worn. Her hair was splayed onto the pillow, and her hands rested on her abdomen. The monitor next to them beeped steadily, proclaiming each heartbeat faithfully.

"And you just found her on the floor?" asked Alya softly, looking at Tom. He was sitting across from her on the other side of Marinette's bed, jovial face now very serious and tired. He looked up at her with tired brown eyes, and nodded.

"We knew that she was sick," he said. "We found her by the window, and that's when the akuma had come. I think maybe she got scared or something."

"What do the doctors say about her treatments?" asked Alya, glancing back at Marinette.

"She just needs rest, good food, and a cool cloth on that fever," said Tom, laying a giant hand on the bed and smoothing a wrinkle in the cotton blanket that covered his daughter. "The doctors say that she got Influenza, a fancy word for the flu, and she'll just need to be monitored so that it doesn't get worse."

"Poor Mari," whispered Alya. She stood, taking the parcel of cards into her hands. "I have to go home now. Can you get these to her when she wakes up?"

"Of course," said Tom, smiling and taking the cards. "How sweet of the class to make this for her. She'll love it."

"Make sure she gets that green one there," added Alya with a smile. "It's from someone special. Oh," she suddenly said. "Where is Mrs. Dupain-Cheng?"

Tom flushed. "She's getting my supper," he said. "She'll be back soon."

"I see. See you all tomorrow," said Alya, and walked out of the hospital room.

Tom waited until the door was closed, then leaped up and ran to the window. He unlatched it and helped Ladybug into the room, closing it behind her.

"Thank you," she said, breathless. "You were a pro, Tom! She had no idea I was behind her outside the window!"

"If you would have stopped making faces at me it would have been easier," he chided.

"Spots off!" she said, and the superhero disguise disappeared in a red flash. Tikki spun out and gazed at the couple before her.

Sabine grinned. "Tikki, it was an honor to be Ladybug again. I had missed it terribly."

"I know," said Tikki quietly. "But you also have to know how worried I am now. Every time I have done this sort of thing in the past it causes harm to those I love most." She flew over to Marinette and perched on the ill girl's shoulder. "You all sacrifice so much," she said softly. "I never want to make it in vain. You left that life years ago, Sabine. You were happy."

"And now I am so proud," said Sabine. "I suspected Marinette a few months ago, but now I know just how hard she has been working to be the best daughter, student, and hero she could be. And poor Chat! Such innocence. I couldn't be more proud of them."

"But they need their identities secret," said Tikki softly. "So that no one else comes to harm."

"There is strength in numbers, Tikki," said Tom softly. Tikki looked up at him, and he smiled. "I am stronger because Sabine loves me. Both of those heroes are kids at heart - they need people they can rely on in a tight spot, no matter the cost."

"It has always been a war against Hawkmoth," said Sabine, sitting on Marinette's bed. "We must give our heroes some allies."

Tikki sat and thought on their words. There was much to think about. She wasn't sure she was comfortable wit this, but it was done now. Only fate would show them if this was the right path.

Marinette stirred, and Sabine planted a kiss on her daughter's head. "I'm so proud," she said again, tears in her eyes. "I'm so proud of both of them."